The long-delayed final $14.5 million phase of renovations at the historic Warner Theatre could start moving forward soon, now that the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has given its preliminary OK to a property deal key to the project.

Both Casey Wells, the Erie County Convention Center Authority's executive director, and Erie lawyer Tom Tupitza said today that HUD has tentatively approved a $1.5 million lease-purchase arrangement between the authority and the owners of Mid-City Towers, a high-rise apartment complex at 12 E. Ninth St., regarding a parking lot located near the high-rise and just south of the Warner, 811 State St.

Tupitza was hired by the Convention Center Authority to negotiate the lease-purchase agreement, which must be settled before $11 million is state funding is released for the project.

The Pennsylvania Legislature has already approved the Warner project's grant.

Tupitza said HUD sent word "about two weeks ago" that it was tentatively signing off on the lease deal.

Both Wells and Tupitza said the timetable for HUD's final approval is unknown. Tupitza said he is now hopeful the property issue can be fully resolved within a few weeks.

"What HUD's approving is a new lease, for the land needed for the expansion," Tupitza said. "They basically came back and said 'We're OK with it.'"

The Convention Center Authority, which manages the state-owned Warner Theatre, must acquire the property from Mid-City Towers' owner, Pittsburgh-based NDC Real Estate Management, to accommodate construction of a larger stage at the Warner.